Post by Spike on Nov 28, 2004 8:04:44 GMT -5
For about seven years during the 90s I owned and operated a small gold mine at Mongolata in South Australia, with a partner. My normal occupation is listed as a Merchant Seaman.
It was a great little pastime, but there was no money in it, so, after losing a couple of acres of skin off my knuckles and knees, being deafened and soaking wet for most of the day, earning nothing more than tucker money and "scenery", gave it away while I still had the bum in my pants.
My 80+ year old mother reckons that it was my coal mining ancestry coming out in me. All of my Mothers people were coal miners in the Hunter Valley around Wallsend and Catherine Hill Bay until this generation, when the last of them died out.
My offsider and I enjoyed it immensely, and we spent some great times together both underground and sitting around a nice big fire with a large flagon of Port of an evening.
It's hardly the type of mining most people on this site would recognise, but it was a great way of life.
There's a small picture of me underground on my web pages at: members.ozemail.com.au/~ekips/
Neither of us would qualify as "Miners" but we certainly learned everything from the bottom up, doing all our own mining, fitting, construction, electrical and paperwork ourselves. Being a two man operation, all of the driving was only 1.1 metres wide and barely high enough to stand in, the country rock was quartzite and tungsten tipped drill sharpening was a regular job often done at the face with portable air powered tools. When I look back now at all of the maintenance work that had to be done I wonder how we ever got time to mine.
If there was any money in it I'd be back there tomorrow.
It was a great little pastime, but there was no money in it, so, after losing a couple of acres of skin off my knuckles and knees, being deafened and soaking wet for most of the day, earning nothing more than tucker money and "scenery", gave it away while I still had the bum in my pants.
My 80+ year old mother reckons that it was my coal mining ancestry coming out in me. All of my Mothers people were coal miners in the Hunter Valley around Wallsend and Catherine Hill Bay until this generation, when the last of them died out.
My offsider and I enjoyed it immensely, and we spent some great times together both underground and sitting around a nice big fire with a large flagon of Port of an evening.
It's hardly the type of mining most people on this site would recognise, but it was a great way of life.
There's a small picture of me underground on my web pages at: members.ozemail.com.au/~ekips/
Neither of us would qualify as "Miners" but we certainly learned everything from the bottom up, doing all our own mining, fitting, construction, electrical and paperwork ourselves. Being a two man operation, all of the driving was only 1.1 metres wide and barely high enough to stand in, the country rock was quartzite and tungsten tipped drill sharpening was a regular job often done at the face with portable air powered tools. When I look back now at all of the maintenance work that had to be done I wonder how we ever got time to mine.
If there was any money in it I'd be back there tomorrow.
